Our Town November 28th, 2013

cityArts

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NYPRESS.COM • THE LARGEST PAPER ON THE EAST SIDE • NOVEMBER 28, 2013

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I’m Thankful For ...

City Hall’s Secrecy Scramble People on the Upper East Side on their kids, their family, and each other

Community groups complain of lack of disclosure for big development projects

By Daniel Fitzsimmons Two major projects developed in the final months of the Bloomberg administration have prompted residents and neighborhood leaders to complain about a lack of transparency and collaboration as City Hall scrambles to complete its work by the end of the mayor’s term.

The two downtown projects -- the development of the South Street Seaport and the relocation of city agencies -- have become touchstones in a debate about secrecy and development. “This administration has been the least transparent that I have ever seen,� said John Fratta, chairman of Community Board 1’s Seaport/ Civic Center Committee, “especially in these last few months of their administration.�

Most recently, the NYC Economic Development Corp. and the Howard Hughes Corporation were compelled in a letter sent by local elected officials to reveal their development plans for the South Street Seaport. This was after pressure from Community Board 1, community groups and residents failed to yield any information.

The letter to the EDC, signed by five elected officials in Manhattan, including Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, said there has been “limited information and lack of meaningful outreach to the community regarding potential development� of the Seaport and urged more transparency and collaboration.

In a different instance where official information has been scarce, details on the city’s Civic Center plan - which Continued on page 8

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Adam DeBrueler is thankful for “my family, the education I’ve obtained, and the experiences that I’ve had.�

John and Jane Connelly, who have been married for 27 years “We’re thankful for our family, our healthy kids, and each other.�

Comic Serenades Sallie Mae A downtown resident takes a unique approach to dealing with oversize student loan payments

By Megan Bungeroth Last week, Jessica Delfino, who writes and performs “dirty folk rock” for a living, prepared to make a familiar call to the company that manages her student loans. She planned to tell whatever representative who answered the phone that she certainly could not afford to send them a check for $1,380 every month, and would have to once again negotiate a lower payment plan, knowing that doing so would not even begin to cover the massive interest accrued over the past 13 years, let alone make a dent in the principle amount.

Though she’s made some version of this call dozens of times since graduating from the Art Institute of Philadelphia with a degree in animation in 2000, Delfino was inspired to spice things up this time around. After Ethan, the man speaking to her from a call center in the Philippines, finished his boilerplate speech, she reached for her guitar and sang him an improvised ditty about the universal experience of being a young person deeply in debt to the government.

“So here we are together in November, talking about my student loan bill once again. I have to say I’d rather be doing just about anything else today, and I’m sure that you would too,” she sings to a patient Ethan on the other end.

“Oh Ethan I’d just like to thank you for being polite,” Delfino

croons as the song wraps up. “Have a lovely rest of your Tuesday, and tell Sallie Mae I said she can kiss my ass.”

In an interview, Delfino said, “I can pay my rent and pay my bills and have a little bit left over.” She estimates that she makes roughly $35,000 to $40,000 a year from her performances and various writing and comedy gigs. “But I’ve never had enough to pay what they want me to pay. Every year I think, maybe next year will be better.”

Delfino is married and lives on the Lower East Side with her husband, a photographer, who she says makes a similar income. They recently downsized from an apartment that cost $3,000 a month and pay a bit less now. She said that she feels lucky to be able to make a living off of her art, but that she doesn’t see how she can do that as well as pay off the nearly $50,000 balance on her student loans – a balance that ballooned, sheerly due to compounding interest, from an initial $15,000 loan. After college, she said, she landed several jobs at companies that went under, and has sent out hundreds of resumes over the years. Now she cobbles together her income from various freelance jobs and from giving ukulele lessons through her own side business, YouRockNYC.com.

“It’s always kind of a sad phone call, it’s a sobering reminder of how unsuccessful things are,” she said of her frequent dialing to Sallie Mae. “In some regards, I’m doing great and life is really good and I can’t complain. If the student loans weren’t in the picture, things would be pretty much perfect. [But] there’s a company that wants $50,000 dollars from me, and I’m going to have to find a way to get it to them.”

Delfino wasn’t planning on serenading Sallie Mae that day; she thought maybe she would record their standard spiel to

use in one of her acts. But frustration and inspiration struck, and she hopes that her little song might propel her career, or at least give others in similar situations a laugh.

“As far as creativity and my music and art goes, wouldn’t it be great if 10 million people, or as many people as watched like Rebecca Black’s video [for the song “Friday” - actually 60,760,933 as of press time] - and I was able to take that money and pay off my degree in one lump sum,” Delfino said.

Considering her predicament, that may be the most likely scenario for paying off the entire balance any time soon.

Delfino knows she isn’t alone – the total student debt burden in the United States is over $1 trillion – and said that she wishes that the government could come up with more practical ways for people to pay or work off their debts, like through teaching or social work programs. But, she acknowledges, that’s not likely, considering what a big business the student loan game has become.

“It’s not unlike a movie where the gangsters want $50,000 ‘or else,’” Delfino said. “Except they’re not threatening my family, they’re threatening my sanity.”

Watch Jessica’s video “What Happens When You Try to Pay Student Loans with a Song Instead of Money,” at http://youtu.be/ i8nmqWdHgkA.

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

CRIME WATCH

By Jerry Danzig

Unvased

Out for a Stroller A tourist’s baby stroller - but thankfully not the baby - was stolen on Lexington Avenue. At 5 PM on Tuesday, November 19, a 66-year-old woman from Montserrat, Mexico left her wallet in a baby stroller outside a coffee shop on Lexington Avenue. When she returned five minutes later, the stroller and her wallet were gone. The items stolen were a blue Maclaren stroller valued at $400, $50 in cash, a Missouri driver’s license, a black vinyl wallet, a Medicare card, various credit and airline cards, and a Blue Cross/Blue Shield card.

Urgent Crime Someone stole a hospital patient’s wallet. At 8 AM on Sunday, November 17, a 76-year-old man from Brooklyn was lying in bed in the urgent care center of a hospital on East 67th Street. He had his pants, with his wallet in a pocket, next to him. The man awoke to find an unknown 50-year-old man sitting in the visitor’s chair sleeping. The unknown man awoke and left. The patient then discovered that his wallet and pants were gone. He called his credit card companies and found that unauthorized charges had turned up on his American Express card but not his Chase card. Hospital security video may have captured the incident. The stolen items were his pants and wallet, $150 in cash, a New York State driver’s license, his house key, health insurance card, and various credit cards.

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Two women shoplifted an expensive vase from an antique store. At 3:49 PM on Saturday, November 16, a woman entered an antique store on Third Avenue accompanied by another woman and asked about buying a gift in the price range of around $600. The store employee, a 66-year-old man, later told police that the two women distracted him by asking questions and walking around the store looking at various items. The women then decided that they did not want to buy anything and walked out of the store rather quickly. The employee suspected that they might have taken something, so he looked around and discovered that a precious vase was missing from a display case. He reviewed the store security video and saw one of the women taking the vase and putting it under her dress before leaving the store. The vase stolen was a René Lalique, 8-1/2 inches high and 7 inches in diameter, valued at $2,500.

On Bad Authority Unauthorized charges appeared on a man’s credit card account. At 12 noon on Friday, November 15, a 47-year-old man living on East 76th Street was reviewing his current American Express transaction history, when he discovered that unknown persons had obtained his credit card information and charged approximately $22,000 to his account without permission or authorization.

Illustration by John S. Winkleman

Con Cop

A swindler posing as police conned an elderly woman.

At 3 PM on Monday, November 18, a 90-year-old woman living on East 87th Street received a phone call from an unknown man pretending to be part of a New York State Police investigation unit. The man told the woman she needed to remove money from her bank account and give it to him to keep it safe. Accompanied by her home health aide, she met the man in front of a luggage store.

They met twice; the first time, she gave the man $10,000 and the second time, $25,000. Video is available of the two meetings. In all, the fake cop took her for $35,000.

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PAGE 3

NEWS

.com STRAUS MEDIA  MANHATTAN PRESIDENT Jeanne Straus EDITOR IN CHIEF Kyle Pope • editor.ot@strausnews.com EDITOR Megan Bungeroth • editor.otdt@strausnews.com CITYARTS EDITOR Armond White • editor.cityarts@strausnews.com

Bookseller Braves Cold Streets, Lukewarm Market Zachary Aptekar says the bookselling business isn’t as robust as it once was

By Owen Agnew

It’s Saturday afternoon in November, sunny and brisk but not too cold — still decent weather for selling books. Zachary Aptekar has set up his tables just east of Washington Square Park, next to a food truck in front of the NYU Business FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS Alan S. Chartock, Bette Dewing, Jeanne Martinet, Library. Toward the front, a row of books Malachy McCourt, Angela Barbuti, Casey Ward, Laura Shanahan leans vertically against the boxes behind them, their covers visible to people walking BLOCK MAYORS by: Kurt Vonnegut, Catcher in the Rye, Sun Ann Morris, Upper West Side Tzu’s The Art of War. Most people glance at Jennifer Peterson, Upper East Side the books on display as they walk by, mildly PUBLISHER Gerry Gavin • a curious, and keep walking, but a few pause dvertising@strausnews.com and browse.

Zachary sits quietly in the open side-door ASSOCIATE PUBLISHERS Seth L. Miller, Ceil Ainsworth, Kate Walsh of his mini van behind the tables of books.

He’s dressed against the chill in layers of ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE wool sweaters, fingerless gloves, and wool Eliza Appleton hat over grey hair and a trim beard.

He’s been selling books on the sidewalk CLASSIFIED ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Stephanie Patsiner since 1993, mostly in the blocks around the Washington Square Park, with occasional DISTRIBUTION MANAGER stints in Soho, St. Marks Place, and the Joe Bendik Upper West Side. New York is a city of readers, but the customer demographic OUR TOWN is published weekly Copyright Š 2013 by Straus Media - Manhattan, LLC and the types of books people buy vary by 212-868-0190 • 333 Seventh Ave, New York, NY. neighborhood. On this stretch of West Fourth Street, his customers break down into four types: the university Straus Media - Manhattan publishes Our Town • The West Side Spirit • Our Town Downtown community, people just passing through between the subway Chelsea Clinton News • The Westsider stops in the East and West Villages, local residents, and from the spring through the fall, tourists heading for Washington To subscribe for 1 year, please send $75 to OUR TOWN, c/o Straus News Square Park.

20 West Ave., Chester, NY 10918 Part of the book-selling business is talking about books, which Zachary clearly enjoys. He’s content to sit quietly, letting PREVIOUS OWNERS HAVE INCLUDED: Tom Allon, Isis Ventures, Ed Kayatt, Russ Smith, people browse undisturbed, but if someone asks a question, Bob Trentlyon, Jerry Finkelstein he’s quick to engage. He has a knack for subtly complementing the choices people make. An older man with thick glasses starts peppering Zachary with questions. “How much is the Jane Jacobs book? How much Dignified, Affordable and Independently Owned Since 1885 for the Mark Twain? Six? Done deal!�

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cheaper paperbacks and more broadly marketable titles he sells here. He gestures at the table. “From here to here is an assortment of fiction, classics, contemporary, poetry, a little bit of drama, some older editions, but not valuable. And then the other half is assorted non-fiction.�

Under the first amendment, vendors selling art, music, and printed material aren’t required to have a license from the city, although there are limits on where they can sell. So the barrier to entry is low, but finding a consistent supply of books that will sell well is not easy. Zachary buys most of his books in New Jersey, from both individuals and at larger book sales.

There are still book vendors in neighborhoods throughout the city, including Harlem, the Upper East Side, and Williamsburg, but the market doesn’t support nearly as many vendors as it once did. When Zachary first started selling, there was a robust book vendor community in the West Village of around a dozen sellers. Now there are only a few other book vendors in the neighborhood, and business is not what it once was. People just don’t buy as many books as they used to, Zachary says. “The numbers just keep going lower and lower. Retail sucks, in a word. I wish I were a salaried person with a predictable income.�

The books that sell well change from day to day. Students make up much of his clientele during the week, but on the weekend, there are more out-of-towners (Zachary calls them bridge and tunnel people, although he’s from New Jersey himself). He puts out books with more general appeal on the weekends. “Kahlil Ghibran or some of the more popular fiction. Most of the people passing by during the week, they’re beyond all that. I might put out In Cold Blood or something like that, even though that still sells pretty well universally. Maybe something like this.� He grabs a copy of Valley of the Dolls and puts it up with the other display books.

Some years back, when it got too crowded in the West Village, Zachary tried selling up on 72nd and Broadway. “It’s probably the most literate neighborhood in Manhattan, if not the five boroughs.� But there isn’t a student population there. “I was able to sell hard covers, but paperbacks and the kinds of books that students buy didn’t do well.�

Many book vendors sell throughout the winter, but for Zachary, there are only a couple more good weekends left for selling books. He stops making the drive from New Jersey once the weather dips below about forty degrees. He focuses on his online sales in the colder months.

In the row of display titles at the front of the table, Jane Jacob’s The Death and Life of Great American Cities sits a few spots down from The Death and Life of Malcolm X. That elegiac title phrase could also be applied to the book vendor business in New York, at least as Zachary describes it. “It was fun, at one point,� he says, “with all those wonderful people, the camaraderie, the wonderful books that we’d see on each others tables, and the whole scene. It’s not that any more. But I can make money at it, or I used to. So if that’s still viable, and if I can physically still do it, I guess I’ll be doing it.�

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

THE SIXTH BOROUGH

To Tomatoes, With (Belated) Love

By Becca Tucker My childhood was marked by a revulsion for raw tomatoes. Long after I’d outgrown my suspicion of pickles and come to appreciate patÊ, tomato goo rendered a sandwich all but inedible to me, even after the tomatoes had been taken off. If there were no other options and I was very hungry, I’d eat it wincingly.

It’s impossible to say when my feelings for tomatoes kicked into reverse. But as in any tumultuous relationship, one recalls certain watershed moments along the way. One night, driving in a full car, someone in the back seat handed me what I thought was a grape.

I popped it in my mouth and discovered too late that it was a cherry tomato. I drank a lot of water and spat out the window, but that might have been the moment I discovered that eating a tomato was a thing that I could do, even if it wasn’t pleasant.

Flash forward eight years. Sitting next to me as I type is a tote bag containing a few of my garden’s heirloom tomatoes, along with bread for toasting and a Tupperware of pesto – a favorite lunch. I have become an ardent lover of what we call our “other red meat.�

As our tomatoes started succumbing to blight, the fruit becoming less abundant, I

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

felt something growing in me, some urge to express my newfound passion via a culinary feat. I started perusing recipes online. I can’t remember now if it was my idea or the internet’s, but I became determined to make tomato jam, and in case that wasn’t haute enough, I’d do it using honey instead of sugar.

I picked a small mountain of yellow cherry tomatoes (I was aiming for an amber-hued jam that would catch the light just so) and plucked off each little cap. I bought those cute little four-ounce jars that so ingenuously turn a stingy helping of jam into an adorable holiday gift.

All I needed now was a free moment.

But night after night, by the time the baby got to sleep it was late to start cooking. The fresh ginger I’d procured wasn’t getting any younger. The blight hadn’t found the cherry tomatoes yet, but it was only a matter of time.

One weeknight, the window of opportunity opened. I had multiple pots on the stove and an array of jars in the oven, sterilizing. One day I’d look back, perhaps when I had a side company making unusual small batch jams, and remember this as the night that I came into my own.

Midnight was long gone by the time I slurped a taste. There was no trace of the

OUR TOWN

lively bite that reminded me of a Bloody Mary ginger, lemon, onion, parsley, garlic or at a particular brunch spot in the East Village coriander. Just tomato-flavored honey. where we used to go on hungover Sundays.

Tomatoes and honey, while both delicious, “Quality control,� said Joe, plopping two are not so good together. Or maybe I was just veggie burgers onto toast and dousing them being hard on myself? I offered the spatula with my ketchup. We chewed. I refused to to husband Joe. “Tastes like honey,� he said look at him. We chewed some more. I peeked noncommittally. Silence followed. across the table. He nodded. I nodded. Maybe It had to be asked. “Do you like it?� it didn’t bear the imprimatur of raw culinary “No,� he said. genius, but it was good ketchup.

My temperature skyrocketed. How about: I love that you’re trying adventurous recipes?

Becca Tucker, a one-time Manhattanite now living Or even: It could be good as a cheese spread? in upstate New York, writes about gardening and I was way too mad to admit that, while his delicacy left plenty to be desired, Joe was right. the rural life.

I’d wasted two pounds of tomatoes and hours of time that could have been spent sleeping, and the kitchen was a wreck. All I wanted to do was go to bed, but I had to finish what I started. I spoke not a word as I poured my sad jam into those cute little four-ounce jars. I tossed the FINE JEWELRY AND WATCH REPAIR finishing touches – vinegar We Buy Gold, Diamonds, Watches, Coins & Silver and brown sugar – into the Fast, Friendly Service pot of ketchup, stirred and tasted.

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OUT AND ABOUT

Friday, November 29th Metropolitan Museum Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche

Come, Let Us Adore: Christmas Concert Sunday, December 8, 2:00pm Selections from the new CD “It’s About Love” will be performed at the concert.

Metropolitan Museum of Art,1000 Fifth Avenue 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.

Free The Museum continues a longstanding holiday tradition with the presentation of its Christmas tree, a favorite of New Yorkers and visitors from around the world. A vivid eighteenth-century Neapolitan Nativity scene—embellished with a profuse array of diminutive, lifelike attendant figures and silk-robed angels hovering above—adorns the candlelit spruce. Recorded music and lighting ceremonies add to the enjoyment of the holiday display.

The Christmas Angel Auditions: A Children Youth & Families Play Friday, December 13, 7:00pm Christmas Eve Tuesday, December 24 4:00pm, 6:30pm & 8:30pm (Live Streaming for the 6:30 service and 8:30 service).

Saturday, November 30

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The Wild Garden: Discovering Central Park Woodlands Exhibit Charles A. Dana Discovery Center, at 110th Street between Fifth and Lenox Avenues 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Free Hands-on exhibit to illuminate the history, ecology, and management of the woodlands and learn why these landscapes are so essential to the purpose of Central Park.

The exhibit includes a digital interactive app highlighting historic photos and revealing hidden features.

212-860-1370; centralparknyc.org

Sunday, December 1 Grinch Day Story time Barnes & Noble, 86th & Lexington Avenue, 150 East 86th Street 11 a.m.

Join in on a reading for you little ones of Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Enjoy Grinchthemed activities, treats and more.

212-369-2180; barnesandnoble.com

Monday December 2 19th Precinct NYPD Monthly Meeting 153 East 67th Street 7 p.m.

Free The precinct community council meets on the first Monday of every month. One of the programs that has become particularly

popular this past year is Community on Patrol. In this program participants are trained in how to be the eyes and ears of the Police Department. These volunteers patrol their block in a bright orange jacket that also acts as a deterrent to crime.

212-452-0613; nyc.gov

Love Your Enemies: A Conversation with Robert Thurman and Sharon Salzberg moderated by Uma Thurman 92y, Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street, 8:15 p.m. $29 Salzberg and Thurman will explain how and why “anger” and even “hatred” become addictive, hooking us into a vicious cycle that all but guarantees continuing unhappiness.

They’ll explain why these emotions are destructive and how to use our most unpleasant feelings to turn the key to becoming whole and happy— freeing ourselves to experience the joy that is inner peace.

92y.org

Come, Stay, R.E.A.D 67th Street Branch Library 3:30 p.m.

Free Did you know? Dogs can’t read but they sure are good listeners.

Once upon a wag, there were specially trained animal assisted therapy dogs wishing that a child would read them a story. And their wish came true. For ages 5-12.

RSVP recommended.

212-734-1717; nypl.org

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

OUT AND ABOUT

92y, Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street 9:45 and 11:15 a.m. $5 A collective of women musicians who perform original compositions and folk music in over 17 languages from across the globe.

Hailing from Japan, Italy, India, Haiti, Mexico and the United States. Limited available.

212-415-5576; 92y.org

Big Lights, Big Menorah Sutton Place at 57th Street 4 p.m.

Free Local residents and elected officials gather in heated tents for an annual tradition that includes hot latkes, donuts, Jewish music DJ, and holiday spirit. Exciting activities abound for children, including fantastical balloon creations, Chanukah crafts, and face painting.

The Chabad Kids Choir in will be in concert and followed by the lighting of the large Sutton Place Menorah. chabadsutton.org

Wednesday, December 4 Chanukah Off Broadway for Kids

Thursday, December 5 Women’s Writing and Discussion Group 67th Street Branch Library, 328 East 67th Street 4:30 – 6:15 p.m.

Free Hannelore Hahn, who directed the International Women’s Writing Guild for 37 years, hosts a monthly informal women’s writing & discussion group. Non-writers are also welcome to join the discussion.

212-734-1717; nypl.org

The History of Ha! by David Misch 92y, Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street $21 2 p.m.

Beginning in pre-history with the mythological Trickster, David looks at how comedy went from Ancient Greece to “Modern Family”, from court jesters to Groucho Marx, from Plato & Aristotle to Abbott & Costello. With stops along the way for commedia dell’arte, a French fartist, and how comedy killed Abraham Lincoln, Mr. Misch uses clips and commentary to look at what comedy is, where it comes from and where it’s going (oddly enough, Philadelphia).

92y.org

Chabad Pre-School, 336 East 53rd Street 4 p.m. $15 For ages 2-8. A fun family event that also includes pre-show crafts and the building and lighting of NYC’s Largest Cookie Menorah 201-262-7172

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Barnes & Noble, 86th & Lexington Avenue, 150 East 86th Street 7 p.m.

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212-369-2180; barnesandnoble.com

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22 East 83rd Street twrds Madison Avenue 6:30 p.m. $10 New York Times bestselling author and terrorism expert Richard Miniter will talk on his latest book, “Leading from Behind,” sharing info and commentary on President Obama’s foreign policies. Sponsored by The Gertrude and Morrison Parker Westside Republican Club and The Metropolitan Republican Club. mail@metclubnyc.org; 212-288-8606

67th Street Library, 328 East 67th Street, btwn 1st & 2nd Avenue 2 p.m.

Free Come, sing songs, play bouncing rhymes games, and listen to stories and begin your babies lifetime love of reading. This age appropriate program is a perfect introduction to the library for you and your baby. Story time begins at 2:00 and since babies are easly distracted and space is limited, latecomers will not be admitted. Ages 3 months to 17 months.

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City Hall’s Secrecy Scramble Continued from page 1

“I think knowing that that was in the proposes to relocate city agencies out of ailing, background, that this had been attempted inefficient buildings into newer and more once before and had been met with a lot cost-effective buildings in Lower Manhattan of opposition, it’s pretty logical to assume has been given out piecemeal by city officials that when Howard Hughes got into it for and only at the community board’s urging. As a second go around, they took a much less previously reported, residents have scrambled transparent route,” said LaValva, who for to mount opposition efforts to the relocation years has championed preservation efforts plans since word of them has spread. at the Seaport, rendering him a de facto City officials said they informed residents of the moves months ago by way of two public rallying point and source of information in the community. notices in the City Record. CB1 executive “The Howard Hughes Corporation isn’t committee member Ro Sheffe said the moves a small corporation, they didn’t come into were deliberately concealed from residents this project blind,” Fratta and two notices “in an obscure said. “They knew what they government newsletter” is “an were going to do when they outrageous betrayal of civic purchased the property, they responsibility.”

The Economic knew there was going to be a Community Board 1 Development tower.” meetings have seen a dramatic Corporation is equally An EDC spokesperson increase in attendance since guilty of keeping the said the plans presented to information on both the community in the dark. Community Board 1 are new Seaport development plan They’ve been totally and had not been received by and the Civic Center plan has negligent when it the EDC. “It’s clear that [the become available. A meeting comes to really looking Howard Hughes Corporation] on Nov. 6 to discuss one of at the needs of the has now begun to fully engage the Civic Center plan moves community.” with the community and will which was held in a large NYS - John Fratta, continue to do so as the project Assembly hearing room - was Community Board 1 evolves,” said the spokesperson. so packed that some attendees Before construction on their were held in the lobby because proposal can begin, Howard the room was at capacity.

Hughes must first get approval from the The majority of those attending the landmarks commission, then go through a meetings are residents who are opposed public review process with the city’s planning to what the city is planning, both with the department, known as the Uniform Land Use Seaport development proposal and the Civic Review Process, or ULURP. Center plan, which is one possible reason why Chris Curry, senior executive vice president city officials and developers have offered scant for the Howard Hughes Corporation, said at details. the Nov. 19 meeting that the company hopes In the case of the Seaport, residents and to clear those hurdles by the spring of 2015. community board members claim that He also said that Howard Hughes would be Howard Hughes and the EDC knew what open to more community collaboration after they were planning to build for months but the new year, and that the final proposal declined to share their plans with residents, would include a plan to save the financially despite numerous requests for information. struggling Seaport Museum.

After the letter sent by the elected officials CB1 will be holding a town hall-style urging transparency, Howard Hughes did meeting in January with Howard Hughes release some details – include plans to where residents will have two minutes each to construct a 50-story residential/hotel tower voice their concerns over the proposal. to a packed Community Board 1 meeting on “The tower is going to stick out like a Nov. 19. sore thumb, it’s going to change the whole Robert LaValva, who operates the New Amsterdam Market, an open-air bazaar selling character of the Seaport, and it’s going to be a major fight between the community and produce and other food-related items in front Howard Hughes,” said CB1’s John Fratta. of the New Market Building, said Howard When asked about the EDC’s role in the Hughes was likely being secretive about Seaport proposal, CB1’s Fratta said he believes their plans for the Seaport because they saw the EDC wanted to get the Seaport proposal what happened with a similar 42-story tower as far along in the process as possible before proposal that General Growth Properties the Bloomberg administration leaves office. made in 2008 when they had a lease on the “The EDC is equally guilty of keeping the Seaport. That proposal was met with strong community in the dark. They’ve been totally local resistance and was shot down by the city’s landmarks commission. General Growth negligent when it comes to really looking at the needs of the community.” later filed for bankruptcy.

‘‘

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

Searching Online for the Perfect School Manhattan startup Noodle.org helps parents and students in high-school selection process

By Joanna Fantozzi Let’s say your middle schooler strives to be a ballerina and lives on the Upper East Side. According to Noodle.org, she should be looking at Talent Unlimited High School on East 67th Street. And your younger son, who’s shown an interest in architecture?

Noodle will allow you to check off the box for architecture, and explore schools like the Art and Design High School on West 57th Street.

Noodle.org, launched in January in Chelsea by the founder of the Princeton Review, is a very organized and extensive database search for public, private and charter schools and colleges across the country, in addition to other educational resources like tutors, camps and coaches.

The website’s New York high school search just launched, and has been endorsed by the DOE as one of the five organizations selected for the School Choice Design Challenge.

The site curates, categorizes and grades (on a scale of 1-5) each of New York’s 450 high schools. The grades are determined through school performance and compared with statewide and local norms.

“If you think about education decades ago, your town told you where to go to school. The notion that you could choose

is a new concept,” said founder John Katzman. “But as a parent, it’s hard to find what you’re looking for, and as an educator it’s hard to promote yourself. If the city is giving people choices but they don’t know what the process is, the wealthier, bettereducated people will find the best options and everyone else will get crumbs.”

That’s where Katzman comes in. He came up with the idea a few years ago, and said that Noodle would have made his own kids’ education choices much easier. Users can log in, and create a list of “dream schools” to share with counselors, parents and advisors. The experience, said Katzman, is meant to be social.

Although many of the school profiles in the nationwide search offer a bare-bones look at the school (stopping at

diversity, average household income, teacher/student ratio and overall score), the New York high school search is extremely detailed and offers a video of the school, as well as grade (A-D) in areas like college readiness, performance and progress.

Noodle is more like an objective curator tool than a subjective ranking machine, pulling information from sources like the school websites and city data, and soon will be pulling information from Inside Schools, as well as making each school landing page interactive. In a couple of weeks, said Katzman, users will be able to edit school pages, much like a Wiki.

“Our goal will be a really long road, to take a $1.3 trillion section of the economy and catalog and make sense of it,” said Katzman. “If it has to do with education, it’s on Noodle.”

*Source: American Booksellers Association Indie Impact Study Series survey of independent, locally-owned business owners, conducted by Civic Economics, July 2012–Sept. 2013 © 2013 American Express Company.

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STREET SHRINK

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A

: Though New York City is a haven for the independent-minded, we are often tasked with making decisions in group settings, whether it’s at home, work, school, or out on the town. And though we rely on our friends and colleagues to inform our decisions, we must caution the insidious affects of groupthink.

Groupthink is defined as a poor decision that is made when a group collectively influences each other. This psychological phenomenon was coined by a Yale psychologist, Irving Janis, in response to John F. Kennedy’s notorious Bay of Pigs imbroglio.

Shortly after JFK took office, he made the risky decision to invade Cuba in an attempt to oust Fidel Castro. By all accounts, this decision is recorded in history as a failure, and one that JFK and his administration should have seen coming. Still, JFK had some of the best and brightest working for him. How then, could the President and his cabinet make this sort of egregious error in judgment?

Janis found that groupthink can occur when the group is made up of individuals with similar backgrounds and similar characteristics. Not only did they come to the same conclusions because they had similarities, but also they steadfastly trusted each other’s opinions because of those similarities.

People also fall prey to groupthink due to a psychological process known as the illusion of vulnerability, where a group is overly confident that they’ve made the right decision

and fails to evaluate alternatives. We’re also inclined to make errors in judgment in group settings for fear of being ostracized. It feels good to have our opinions validated, which makes it risky to voice dissent.

While it’s good to have a number of people weigh in on certain topics, it’s important to be cognizant of groupthink. Psychologists suggest that just being aware that the pernicious phenomenon exists can mitigate the affect when making decisions. Alternatively, we can prevent groupthink by allowing others from the outside to weigh in on the decision — namely if they are dissimilar from the group (in personality and demographics).

Some psychologists have suggested that the leader, whether that be the president, CEO, or director step away when a group makes significant decisions. This way, the group can talk freely. When in a group, consider what everyone has to say, but don’t let the opinions of others be your ultimate guide.

Kristine Keller received her Master’s in psychology from New York University.

Do you have a question for our Street Shrink? Email your question to news@strausnews.com with the subect line “Street Shrink.” Be sure to include your name and contact information.

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

cityArts

Edited by Armond White

New York’s Review of Culture . CityArtsNYC.com

Go Where the Energy Flows

Misse and Centurion

Dardo Galletto Dance Studio

Dardo Galletto bring Tango’s melody and beat to local New York

By Judy Gelman Myers

W

hen the legendary Fazil’s dance studio near Times Square closed in 2008, the ethnic dance community was shattered. Fazil’s was a home, a family, a space where hundreds of dancers, musicians, and aficionados spent twelve hours a day. No one imagined that New York City would ever see a studio that inspired a similar devotion. Then, in 2010, Argentineans Dardo Galletto and Karina Romero opened the Dardo Galletto Studios on 151 W. 46th St., and Times Square once again gave ethnic dance—in this case, Argentinean tango—a home.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

As soon as you enter Dardo’s large ballroom on the 11th floor, you feel a cozy sense of community. This isn’t a place for show-offs or smoldering, sexually aggressive tango—this is a happy gathering of folks of all ages sharing their love of the dance. Galletto counteracts tango stereotypes by emphasizing the understanding of energy flow, wherein tango portrays the complexity of human interaction. There’s a work-study program for folks who want to study but can’t afford to pay, and there’s even a class called Tango Fun 4 Kids. The coziness of the studio draws in part from Galletto and Romero’s emphasis on authenticity, rather than showiness; to keep close to the tradition, they frequently bring in tango masters from Argentina.

The most recent guest artists from Buenos Aires were tango greats Gabriel Missé and Analia Centurión, whose 20-hour seminar from November 8 through 17 was designed to improve technique and appreciation

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of tango music. It’s hard to imagine a more perfect dancer than Gabriel Missé. He suspends his body with breath through every moment of movement, offsetting gravity as he and Ms. Centurión become one creature with four legs, swaying with underwater weightlessness.

He’s also a superb teacher who transmits not just the surface mechanics of tango but its deep structure as well.

Illustrating how to break down the musical phrase, he demonstrates as he explains, “The upper body is the melody, the working leg is the beat.”

Nothing could ever replace Fazil’s. The loyalty and commitment to the place and its people still fill the hearts and minds of those who feel its loss. But it’s obvious that the community of dancers at Dardo Galletto have a similar love for their teachers, their studio, and each other.

It’s a tiny patch of home in the heart of Times Square, and it’s a beautiful thing to see.

PAGE 11

CITYARTS GALLERIES

Re-launching the Ready-mades bottle of Pluto soda. The sum is greater than its parts and this particular model of the solar system is funnier and more poetic than anything

By Melissa Stern you made in elementary school. The objects are 013 marks the 100th what they are, and at the anniversary of the same time by repurposing debut of Marcel and ordering them in Duchamp’s artthis way, they become so world shaking piece much more.

Bicycle Wheel. By mounting a In addition to the bicycle wheel on an old wooden thoughtful selection of stool and declaring it “art,” Don Joint, The the work, the installation Duchamp effectively set the 20th of this exhibition is Annunciation Century art world in motion. To exemplary. This is the celebrate the act that launched a million second exhibition that I have seen at this artists, Pavel Zoubok Gallery has mounted an gallery in which the design of the exhibition ambitious and satisfying exhibition entitled itself becomes an integral and important part “L’Objet Trouve’: Readymade, Rectified & of the show. The way that Zoubok has installed Reassembled”. Assembling an impressive blue- the art, using color and shape to define the chip roster of artists, the show examines, in way the eye moves through the exhibition an idiosyncratic way, the use of found objects works to illuminate the connections between in artworks throughout the past 100 years. art and artists. Zoubok’s choices reinforce in a Certainly a big topic for one show to get its direct way the underlying logic that organizes arms around, and Zoubok has done it with this show. grace and intelligence.

This rare exhibition is an opportunity to see Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Richard over 30 artists working with and around found Pettibone, Robert Rauschenberg, Joan objects, either transforming them physically Mitchell, Sherrie Levine, to name a few, have or by declaration into something new. contributed meaningful works to this show.

“L’Objet Trouve’: Readymade, Rectified The exhibition provokes numerous questions & Reassembled” thru Dec. 21. At Pavel about the appropriation and re-use of found Zoubok Gallery, 531 West 26th Street, 2nd objects. Andras Borocz uses materials in a floor http://www.pavelzoubok.com/ way that completely transcends their original On a swing uptown I went to the Art purpose, laminating pencils into a large block Spiegelman retrospective at The Jewish and then carving them into a sinuous pair Museum. I have no patience to shuffle along of legs. At the same time Ray Johnson, with with a crowd and read graphic novels on his sly piece entitled Barnet Newman Belt the walls of a museum, so I focused on the Club (which consists solely of a belt hanging preparatory drawings that Spiegelman makes on the wall) is working within the original before the work is codified into a comic strip Duchampean definition of the readymade: If or novel. Stunning, vigorous and full of life I say it is art, then it is art. This thoughtfully these studies are the jewels of this show. crafted show embraces both approaches to Spiegelman is best known for his Pulitzer materials.

Prize winning graphic novel; Maus, New My favorite piece in the show is by an Yorker magazine covers and subversive comic artist with whom I was not familiar- Rich strips, and these are wonderful. But for me, Remsberg’s found-object, Solar System. the revelatory part of the exhibition is the Starting in an upper corner of the gallery and opportunity to see Spiegelman’s work when he traversing in a gentle downward diagonal, we is simply drawing - the flourish of the pencil, see the Sun; a record from Sun Records in messy erasures, the marks of an artist working Memphis, Mercury, a 1950’s machine handle, ideas out on paper, this is what makes this a Venus brand toilet tank ball can, an Earth tin exhibition soar. of bicycle patches, a Mars lock, a Saturn radio, “Art Spiegelman’s Co-Mix: A Jupiter brand rope reel, a Neptune meter Retrospective” at The Jewish Museum cover, a Uranus watch and finally an empty through March 23, 2014

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

CITYARTS FILM

No Thinking Allowed Hunger Games 2 never catches ďŹ re

By Armond White

B

y the time Philip Seymour Hoffman enters The Hunger Games: Catching Fire with his usual post-Oscar smugness, viewers are so worn out from the brackish color Tucci and Lawrence in Catching Fire and over-complicated plot nonsense that no one in the audience I saw whose audiences are so accustomed to banal it with laughed upon hearing Hoffman’s sensationalism and incoherent form that character name, Plutarch Heavensbee—or they no longer know how to watch media. maybe they were just dumbstuck. Once you They’re as hopelessly gullible and unperceptive enter the world of The Hunger Games, the as the denizens of Katniss’ cat-piss, subpseudo-literary conceits, futuristic sci-fi and classical dystopia—a combination of lifedystopian speculation are entirely witless. It’s or-death tournaments, Truman Show-style glum, unenjoyable junk, not campy enough to media domination and dull references to the laugh at. literature assignments students didn’t read This franchise illustrates how rotten in Junior High. (When Katniss is attacked by contemporary filmmaking has gotten; the birdlike creatures who mimic the voices of producers refuse to make the series better. loved ones, these “Jabberjays� pointlessly copy They merely follow the pattern set by the and bowdlerize the sirens and Stymphalians atrocious Lord of the Rings films where an of Greek mythology.) Lawrence achieves overlong narrative sends its heroine Katniss no “magical� effects that create a mood of Everdene (Jennifer Lawrence) through a visionary wonderment; the arbitrariness of quasi-political demolition derby designed poison fog and other impediments on Katniss’ to divert the masses while submitting obstacle course insult our intelligence. The them to entertainment-cum-slavery. The film looks cheap, uninspired, like an episode games contestants fight each other yet of Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead never revolt against their impoverished, which makes its attempts at satirizing TVdictatorial circumstances. In Catching Fire, game-show crudeness laughable—yet never the filmmakers never employ an efficient funny. (Stanley Tucci’s performance as emcee narrative—like Paul W.S. Anderson’s 2008 Caesar Flickerman is especially awful. Phonier Death Race which used a similar competitive than ever, Tucci cannot satirize his own premise to spectacular and moving effect. smarminess.)

As escapism, this is esthetically dreary Catching Fire is another step in the cinema’s and intellectually static. It avoids exploring destruction, making movies more like the basic analogy to our contemporary television. The supposed quality cast doesn’t victimization by media and politics—that new help. Jeffrey Wright and Amanda Plummer are sci-fi state: not Oligarchy or Aristocracy but wasted and Hoffman looks like he’s cashing his a media-run Mediocracy, to paraphrase Mike check in his street clothes--a fitting contrast to Judge’s brilliant Idiocracy. (For an artistic the absurd costumes that make Lawrence look version of this theme see Chen Kaige’s new princessy yet catatonic. Lawrence’s athletic, Caught in the Web.) This Hunger Games 2 healthy-girl beauty should make her an ideal represents such a blatant, unembarrassed, heroine for a democratic adventure flick—the unimaginative marketing offensive that it Nimrod scene where she shoots an arrow repeats all the worst aspects of Lord of the into the artificial heavens ought to wreck Rings, Harry Potter and Twilight, starting the Games the way Omarosa does various with giving the helm to a director incapable reality-TV shows. As Katniss and her eunuchy of providing momentum, excitement, partner Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) travel on seriousness, craft or beauty—in other words, their Victory tour, a peon shouts “Tell us what who cannot direct. you really think!� Yet Hunger Games 2 never Francis Lawrence, a commercials and empowers its audience. With this franchise, no music-video pro, suits the cynical production; thinking is allowed. his ineptitude derives from the visual illiteracy of the TV/videogame industry Follow Armond White on Twitter at 3xchair

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Leto and McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club

Pioneer/Horror Story McConaughey tries too hard in Dallas Buyers Club

By Armond White How do you tell Ron Woodroof ’s story so that it is both informative and enlightening?

Woodroof, a not-altruistic Texas shitkicker who drank, drugged, chased tail and conned people, contracted AIDS in the mid-80s then became a self-made entrepreneur.

He rejected the prescribed drug AZT (a prophetic decision), researched his options and sold alternative medicines to those who could afford it. Woodroof extended his life beyond doctors’ expectation but eventually succumbed which prevents his story in Dallas Buyers Club from seeming triumphant. So what is it, exactly?

The film’s concept mostly avoids sentimentality starting with Matthew McConaughey playing Woodroof in an extreme example of artistic dedication-losing weight to appear convincingly, repulsively unwell. But McConnaughey and his filmmaking associates, director JeanMarc Vallee and screenwriters Craig Borten, Melisa Wallack, deny further identification with Woodroof by so thoroughly resisting audience affection (except for two sappy roles: a frustrated doctor played by Jennifer Garner and Woodroof ’s business partner Rayon, a pre-op transexual played by Jared Leto).

Maybe there’s a kind of integrity to McConaughey’s method yet in the end it’s not so different from the same humorless stuntperformance route that actors have imitated since DeNiro’s physical transformation in Raging Bull. Not pitying Woodroof confuses sympathy with trite feeling. Woodroof ’s hard-ass personality never develops--not even in the understanding that he shows to Rayon--and that’s more detrimental than the repugnant physical appearance.

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McConaughey’s wizened, spindly look evokes the ravaged image of Rock Hudson whose AIDS death is featured early in the film as a sign of that dark era and of the shocked naivete among Woodroof ’s bluecollar homophobic folk. This suggests an actorly tribute to Hudson that’s more honorable than Steven Soderbergh’s ridicule of Liberace, another celebrity AIDS casualty in the disgraceful Behind the Candelabra, yet McConaughey’s empathy doesn’t extend to the film’s almost affectless depiction of Texas grit and ingenuity.

Because Dallas Buyers Club is also a story about medical and entrepreneurial pioneering, Woodroof ’s orneriness should reflect his culture as a study of American character.

As a bio-pic, this is less smart-ass than Gus Van Sant’s Milk but unfortunately, the biopic momentum--a look at a prophet that is simultaneously a tragedy--goes downhill. And McConaughey and Leto’s genuine efforts go with it. Their performances (McConaughey’s deadly earnest and the dreamy sensitivity Leto’s had since playing Jordan Catalano on My So-Called Life) show good faith but are not on the same level as Eric Caravaca and Bruno Todeschini in Patrice Chereau’s Son Frere, the AIDS masterpiece that avoided mentioning AIDS. Chereau’s emotional intensity got to the essence of physical tragedy and spiritual triumph while Dallas Buyers Club (a bizarre title for a bio-pic, it makes peace with capitalist greed and medical helplessness) seems afraid to show emotion about a topic where emotion is natural and earned. Dallas Buyer’s Club avoids identifying tragedy or triumph. Its modesty is immodest and feels wrong-headed. Part-pioneer bio-pic, part horror story, is this “entertainmentâ€??  Follow Armond White on Twitter at 3xchairÂ

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

RESTAURANT INSPECTION RATINGS

The Original Teachings of

Theosophy

November 13-18, 2013

Restaurant Grades

as recorded by H.P. Blavatsky & William Q. Judge

Three Planes of Human Life

The following listings were collected from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s website on November 4, 2013 and include the most recent inspection and grade reports listed. We have included every restaurant listed during this time within the zip codes of our neighborhoods. Some reports list numbers with their explanations; these are the number of violation points a restaurant has received. To see more information on restaurant grades, visit www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/services/restaurant-inspection.shtml.

Leaving the bodily world through the door of dream, the sleepless Spirit views the sleeping powers. Then clothed in radiance, returns to his own home, the gold-gleaming Genius, swan of everlasting. ‌

Orsay

1057 Lexington Avenue

A

Tanoshi Bento

1372 York Avenue

Not Graded Yet (23) Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

Bagels & Co.

Fat Sal’s Pizza

Pisa Pizza & Bagels

1428 York Avenue

1603 2 Avenue

1461 3 Avenue

Not Graded Yet (31) Cold food item held above 41Âş F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ÂşF) except during necessary preparation.

Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Personal cleanliness inadequate. Outer garment soiled with possible contaminant. Effective hair restraint not worn in an area where food is prepared. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred.

Grade Pending (32) Hot food item not held at or above 140Âş F. Cold food item held above 41Âş F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ÂşF) except during necessary preparation.

Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.

Grade Pending (32) Cold food item held above 41Âş F (smoked fish and reduced oxygen packaged foods above 38 ÂşF) except during necessary preparation.

Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Live roaches present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas. Food contact surface not properly washed, rinsed and sanitized after each use and following any activity when contamination may have occurred. Wiping cloths soiled or not stored in sanitizing solution.

Insomnia Cookies

1579 2 Avenue

A

Soom Soom Vegetarian Restaurant

1603 2 Avenue

Not Graded Yet (30) Hot food item not held at or above 140Âş F. Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations. Hand washing facility not provided in or near food preparation area and toilet room. Hot and cold running water at adequate pressure to enable cleanliness of employees not provided at facility. Soap and an acceptable handdrying device not provided.

Cascabel Taqueria

1538 2 Avenue

The Spirit of man has two dwelling places: both this world, and the other world. The borderland between them is the third, the land of dreams. While he lingers in the borderland, the Spirit of man beholds both his dwellings: both this world and the other world.

And according as his advance is in the other world, gaining that advance the Spirit of man sees evils or delights. ‌

Grade Pending (20) Live roaches present in facility’s food and/or non-food areas.

And when he has taken his ease in the resting-place of dream, moving to and fro and beholding good and evil, the Spirit of man returns again by the same path, hurrying back to his former dwelling-place in the world of waking. But whatever the Spirit of man may behold there, returns not after him, for the Spirit of man is free, and naught adheres to the Spirit.

- The Upanishades

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PAGE 15

NEIGHBORHOOD REAL ESTATE SALES Reported November 8-15, 2013 Neighborhood

Address

Apt.

Sale Price

BR BA Listing Brokerage

Beekman

12 Beekman Place

#5D

$650,000

1

1

Coldwell Banker Bellma

Carnegie Hill

1050 5 Ave.

#9C

$2,000,000

2

2

Douglas Elliman

50 E 89 St.

#10G

$375,000

0

1

Bona Tierra

55 E 87 St.

#6A

$585,000

1

1

Halstead Property

OPPORTUNITY Motivated and talented low-income public high school students are eager to go to college but can’t afford SAT prep.

Lenox Hill

115 E 86 St.

#33

$645,000

1

1

Halstead Property

140 E 63 St.

#17C

$7,250,000

3

2

Corcoran

200 E 66Th St.

#A1901

$3,421,320

3

3

Corcoran

140 E 63 St.

#14B

$6,500,000

3

3

Sotheby’s

360 E 72 St.

#A702

$765,000

1

1

Douglas Elliman

201 E 66 St.

#18A

$795,000

1

1

Douglas Elliman

26 E 63 St.

#10A+

$6,200,000

315 E 68 St.

#6A

$605,000

1

1

Corcoran

40 E 66 St.

#6B

$7,475,000

3

4

Brown Harris Stevens

150 E 72Nd St.

#3S

$5,350,000

3

2

Macklowe Properties

167 E 61 St.

#11A

$1,250,000

2

2

Halstead Property

650 Park Ave.

#8F

$3,200,000

2

3

Douglas Elliman

401 E 60 St.

#3A

$1,410,000

2

2

Douglas Elliman

721 5 Ave.

#35Ab

$6,500,000

4

4

Trump

480 Park Ave.

#8J

$729,000

1

1

Corcoran

465 Park Ave.

#10C

$1,100,000

153 E 57 St.

#12D

$610,950

1

1

Az Realty Nyc

IMPACT

212 E 57 St.

#17A

$3,150,000

3

3

Corcoran

Every year, New York Cares brings its Kaplan SAT Prep program to public schools throughout the city. In 2012, volunteers worked in 40 schools and helped 1,000 students get into the colleges of their choice, including several admissions to Cornell and New York University.

245 E 54 St.

#25H

$575,000

1

1

Next Stop Ny

20 E 35 St.

#4F

$508,500

123 E 37 St.

#3B

$320,000

0

1

Douglas Elliman

5 Tudor City Place

#1133

$279,000

0

1

City Connections Realty

234 E 35 St.

#9F

$249,000

0

1

Coldwell Banker Bellmar

211 E 35 St.

#1G

$286,000

0

1

Town Residential

310 Lexington Ave.

#5B

$350,000

0

1

Corcoran

630 1 Ave.

#17A

$721,500

630 1 Ave.

#9D

$10

35 Park Ave.

#5H

$420,000

20 E 35 St.

#Comb

$1,200,000

225 E 34 St.

#Phd

$1,125,000

1

1

Corcoran

400 E 54 St.

#16E

$1,272,812

303 E 57 St.

#10E

$525,000

1

1

Halstead Property

36 Sutton Place Sou

#5F

$1,275,000

2

2

Stribling

345 E 56 St.

#Resi

$1,395,000

14 Sutton Place Sout

#2B

$750,000

Midtown

Midtown E

Murray Hill

Sutton Place

Volunteer or Donate at newyorkcares.org.

Turtle Bay

345 E 56 St.

#Resi

$405,000

240 E 47 St.

#34B

$1,325,000

1

1

Douglas Elliman

310 E 46 St.

#17H

$832,757

2

1

Halstead Property

235 E 49 St.

#7F

$435,000

1

1

Douglas Elliman

212 E 48 St.

#8D

$499,000

1

1

Corcoran

301 E 48 St.

#7J

$490,000

1

1

Corcoran

333 E 46 St.

#4H

$805,000

1

1

Coldwell Banker Bellmar

216 E 50 St. 255 E 49 St. Upper E Side New York Cares is New York City’s leading volunteer organization.

PAGE 16

Photo credit: Lauren Farmer

OUR TOWN

www.nypress.com

$999,900 #17B

$870,000

135 E 79 St.

#7E

$8,909,687

4

4

Corcoran

343 E 74 St.

#Ph2a

$960,000

2

2

Douglas Elliman

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

Neighborhood

Yorkville

Address

Apt.

Sale Price

BR BA Listing Brokerage

64 E 80 St.

#2R

$549,000

1

1

Corcoran

440 E 79 St.

#8A/B

$2,570,000

200 E 79Th St.

#5C

$3,202,396

135 E 79 St.

#4E

$7,204,118

3

3

Corcoran

119 E 84 St.

#6A

$1,670,000

2

2

Warburg

152 E 83 St.

#3C

$355,000

1

1

Town Residential

1001 5 Ave.

#9Ab

$3,500,000

3

3

Brown Harris Stevens

515 E 72 St.

#12E

$738,231

0

1

Corcoran

235 E 73 St.

#2H

$610,000

1

1

Halstead Property

353 E 72 St.

#34A

$500,000

1

1

Douglas Elliman

180 E 79 St.

#8D

$2,950,000

3

3

Douglas Elliman

1049 5 Ave.

#6A

$2,090,000

2

2

Douglas Elliman

399 E 72 St.

#18G

$380,000

0

1

One Manhattan Real Est

363 E 76 St.

#9D

$465,000

0

1

Douglas Elliman

205 E 78 St.

#18Hal

$19,465

1003 Lexington Ave.

#Fl6

$5,750,000

400 E 77 St.

#7K

$932,000

2

2

Halstead Property

170 E End Ave.

#6B/Cd

$8,650,000

5

5

Town Residential

2

2

Corcoran

170 E End Ave.

#6B/Cd

$10

1623 3 Ave.

#21F

$1,100,000

455 E 86 St.

#15B

$931,250

1

1

Brown Harris Stevens

302 E 88 St.

#5B

$390,000

0

1

Douglas Elliman

444 E 86 St.

#10E

$550,000

1

1

Rb Homes

525 E 84 St.

#4A

$380,000

1

1

Corcoran

1641 Third Ave.

#28D

$760,000

1

1

Douglas Elliman

325 E 80 St.

#4E

$740,000

250 E 87 St.

#20C

$871,000

301 E 79 St.

#15J

$1,270,000

2

2

Stribling

1725 York Ave.

#29H

$765,000

1

1

Sotheby’s

448 E 84 St.

#4C

$320,000

1

1

Coldwell Banker A.C. La

345 E 93 St.

#20F

$453,888

1

1

Next Perfect HomeâŽ

400 E 85 St.

#15E

$789,750

2

1

Core

301 E 79 St.

#17G

$789,000

1

1

Corcoran

The 80th Street Residence Earns Additional New York State Department of The 80th Street Residence Earns Additional New York State Department of Health Licensure and CertiďŹ cations Licensure and CertiďŹ cations The only licensedHealth Assisted Living Residence in New York City to obtain both The only licensed Assisted Living Residence in New York City to obtain both Enhanced and Special Needs CertiďŹ cation (QKDQFHG DQG 6SHFLDO 1HHGV &HUWLĂ€ FDWLRQ

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of care on the Upper East Side

&BTU UI 4USFFU /FX :PSL /: t t XXX UI4USFFU3FTJEFODF DPN 2

1

Maxwell Jacobs

345 E 93 St.

#29G

$499,950

1

1

Keller Williams

516 E 82 St.

#5E

$329,560

1

1

Citi Habitats

The only dedicated Assisted Living Facility in New York City specializing in Enhanced Memory Care.

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OUR TOWN

80th Street Residents in Central Park with the Essex House Hotel peeking from behind.

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430 East 80th Street, New York, NY 10075 Tel. 212-717-8888 www.80thstreetresidence.com PAGE 17

CELEBRITY PROFILE

Lighting Up Lincoln Sqaure President of Lincoln Square BID, Monica Blum, on tree lightings, bike lanes, and Mayor Koch

By Angela Barbuti Most that goes on from West 58th to 70th streets is, literally, Monica Blum’s business.

As president of the Lincoln Square Business Improvement District for 17 years, a typical day for her can consist of picking up litter, calling 311, and helping people who were once homeless find jobs. At the moment, the 69-year-old is also prepping for the city’s largest holiday festival, Winter’s Eve, which is hosted by her BID. The restaurants and stores on the Upper West Side contribute to the success of the annual outdoor extravaganza, held on December 2nd this year. (Full disclosure: my father owns a restaurant that participates in the festival). The event is near to Blum’s heart since it was her brainchild 14 years ago, when Lincoln Center lit its tree and afterwards, neighbors were left without a continuation of the celebration. Now, guests can enjoy Nutella hot chocolate from Arpeggio, mini burgers from P.J. Clarke’s and guacamole from Rosa Mexicano, to name just a few of the 33 local restaurant participants.

Music from schools like La Guardia High School and organizations such as the West Side Y will add to the magic in the air along Broadway. Blum summed up the evening, and her pride in the district, perfectly when she said, “Our real goal is to turn Lincoln Square into a small town for one night.”

Whose idea was Winter’s Eve? I went to Lincoln Center’s tree lighting with a woman who had been producing it, and when it was over, we heard all these people saying, “What do we do now?” In those days, a lot of the businesses were new, so we thought it would be a great way to introduce people to all the stores and restaurants. We use the stores as performance venues. There will be music this year in Gracious Home, Century 21, Raymour & Flanigan, and Bed Bath & Beyond. The whole idea is to bring the community together.

Explain the importance of local

PAGE 18

restaurant participation.

Food is a big draw. What’s interesting is that we have the fanciest restaurants but also smaller ones, and promote them all.

The restaurants provide the food, staff, and decorations, and we let them keep the proceeds. Nobody’s selling for more than four dollars, but a lot of places make a decent amount, at least to cover their costs. We feel that’s important because we’re a business improvement district, so we want to support our businesses.

You’re a proponent of the arts and hired many performers for the evening.

A lot of our budget for this event goes to talent. I believe that you should pay artists. I’m very proud of the fact that I’ve been invited to be at a dance symposium in February to speak about the role that BIDs can play to support dance and the arts. In the case of Brian Stokes Mitchell [who will perform at Dante Park], we have a partnership with the Actors Fund, so we’ll make a contribution to them.

This event is definitely kid friendly.

Where can kids go to participate in the festivities?

The American Bible Society lets us use its space for free and we book musicians for kids.

In addition, we have all sorts of craft tables.

Magnolia Bakery donates mini cupcakes at the children’s venue too.

Walk us through a typical day for you.

People who run BIDs tend to be nuts about litter on the streets. Not too long ago, Ralph [Memoli, Vice President] went out and ordered rubber gloves because we pick up garbage if we see it. If I see something wrong - a pothole, a tree limb that’s down - I’ll deal with it right away. We have a fair number of disenfranchised sleeping on the streets. We’ll report that to 311. Part of our job is making sure that the flowers are blooming in the Broadway malls [medians along the avenue] and the planters. It’s a signature effort of ours.

When I started, the malls were barren and filled with litter. We hire a crew every single day from Goddard Riverside Community Center - formerly homeless, mentally ill - to clean the malls.

What are some big changes you’ve seen in the neighborhood?

OUR TOWN

The restaurants. When we first started, there were very few interesting ones. We had O’Neill’s and Shun Lee, but there really wasn’t a lot. Between the now high-end dining at Time Warner, and Lincoln Center opening up all these other restaurants, we’ve expanded on the food end. And, of course, the Lincoln Center redevelopment has really transformed this neighborhood.

What’s a recent issue you’ve gotten backlash about?

The only thing I got real backlash about was the bike lanes, because I have real concerns about the way they’ve been designed. I’m a bike rider; I believe in safe bike riding. But I don’t think, initially, that there was appropriate outreach to the business community. It’s made it much more challenging for businesses to get deliveries. They have to look at how they do it so it doesn’t negatively affect businesses.

In 2011, did you get complaints about the Century 21 replacing the Barnes & Noble on Broadway?

We got a lot of complaints about losing a bookstore. And then we lost another [Borders] at Time Warner, so we have no bookstore now.

Century 21 is very community minded. They support us and were very quick to embrace our organization.

You started your career in government at Mayor Koch’s congressional office. How did that come about?

My first job out of graduate school was at the Anti-Defamation League. There was a woman there who was a close friend of someone working for Koch, and she said they were looking for someone to work in his New York office. I went for an interview and started there in the fall of 1969. On weekends, I gave out literature at subways when he was campaigning. In the very early years, we played hostess at his apartment when he would have people over. I did scheduling and then every Friday - I’ll never forget this - I would have to call all the television stations and say, “Would you like to have Ed Koch on your talk show?”

When Koch was elected, you became Assistant to the Mayor.

When he became mayor, I left the Department of Investigation to join his City Hall staff. Ed Koch and my colleagues were really wonderful to me when my first husband died suddenly of a brain aneurysm in May of 1978. They kept me extremely busy. About a year later, I met my husband Bob Lemieux at City Hall - he was working at the Office of Management and Budget. We were on opposite sides of an issue; I wanted to spend money and he didn’t! We got married in 1981 and always said that we owed our meeting to

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Ed Koch.

You also worked for the Board of Education. What was your position there?

I was an assistant to the chancellor for personnel and labor. I was going to law school at the time. When I became a lawyer, I became the deputy director of the chancellor’s office of labor relations.

What is the greatest perk of your job?

I get no perks, but I have a wonderful staff and a great board. I don’t have too many problems; this district is a great one. I love coming to work every day.

Winter’s Eve Dec 2nd, 5:30-9:00 p.m. Festival runs along Broadway from Time Warner Center to 68th St. Tree Lighting at Dante Park (Broadway & 63rd) with Brian Stokes Mitchell, Rosie’s Theater Kids & Sade Baderwina at 5:30 p.m.

During the festival, support the New York Cares Coat Drive. Bring a gently used or new coat to help keep local children & families warm this winter to the following locations: • Dante Park at Broadway & 63rd Street • American Bible Society at 1865 Broadway & 61st Street (collecting until Feb 7th) • Tisch WNET Studios at Lincoln Center at Broadway & 66th Street

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

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OfďŹ ce of National Drug Control Policy/Partnership for a Drug-Free AmericaÂŽ

AUCTIONS

Estate & Military Auction Dec. 7th @ 3pm...75 Mile Drive OLD RED BARN AUCTION SEE 400 Photos at www.auctionzip.com/NY-Auctioneers/3171.html 845.754.7122

To advertise call (212)-868-0190 Classified2@strausnews.com

I HELP CHILDREN PREPARE FOR

PAINTING

SABBY PAINTING Interior/Exterior Free Estimates AďŹ&#x20AC;ordable Pricing

Happy Holidays

516-791-1118 THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013

BY GIVING JUST A FEW HOURS OF MY DAY

Licensed & Insured

To Include Your Business Call Stephanie 212-868-0190

ABECAUSE LIFETIME OF LEARNING I DONâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;T JUST WEAR THE SHIRT, I LIVE IT. ÂŽ

GIVE. ADVOCATE. VOLUNTEER. LIVE UNITED

Ruth Rusie is part of United Wayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ongoing work to improve the education, income, and health of our communities.

To find out how you can help create opportunities for a better life for all, visit LIVEUNITED.ORG.

(917) 837-0811 OUR TOWN

www.nypress.com

PAGE 19

The Neighborhood

HOLIDAY DECORATIONS Photo Contest WHERE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD IS THE BEST DECORATED? r "QBSUNFOU #VJMEJOH -PCCZ r /FJHICPSIPPE 4UPSF r /FJHICPSIPPE 3FTUBVSBOU Snap a photo of your lobby’s holiday décor, your favorite restaurant or neighborhood store then go to nypress.com to upload your photo

YOUR PHOTO COULD WIN YOU $150

Photo skills not up to the task?

Simply tell us and we’ll go shoot the neighborhood spot ourselves.

Each week from November 27 - December 19 we’ll award $150 for the best photo (not taken by us)

PAGE 20

OUR TOWN

www.nypress.com

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2013